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Posted by
stk
on 2016-03-08

PUBLIC:

I had a warm intro to Schwark. My contacts said he was very sharp and knew payments very well. This turned out to be very true. I've pitched a number of firms and Schwark is way ahead of anyone else I pitched. He very quickly got to the key decision point of our business. Although he turned us down, he did two really classy things that really stand out in my mind: 1) promptly made a decision and told me 2) gave me valuable feedback on where he thought the biggest problem would be and the best to overcome it. Most people wouldn't have bothered after a turn down to write such a detailed email. A real class act. And I've known Ajay for years since he started Pinnacle in his garage. A real entrepreneur and a great guy.

Posted by
johnhelm
on 2012-01-09

PUBLIC:

Trinity led my A and invested in every subsequent round, and were great investors. Noel Fenton sat on my board for over 5 years, and almost all their other partners at one point or another helped me - they function as a real partnership. Trinity has a reputation for being Entrepreneur friendly, and it is deserved.

Posted by
gobears34
on 2010-05-17

PUBLIC:

Ajay and Trinity led our A1 round in early 2009. (Note that Ajay/Trinity did this deal during end of days when few deals were getting done). Ajay has been awesome to work with as he is honest, straightforward, and good intentioned. As a former entrepreneur he puts a lot of faith in his CEO's and he knows that bumps in the road are just that. His advice is practical and his strategic vision is perceptive. But his MO is really just to find ways of being useful and letting you run the company how you see fit. I feel fortunate we've got Ajay on our team.

We had a handshake deal with a partner at Trinity that I've known for years to lead our next financing round based on solid progress during the year. The terms we shook on were clearly stated, including valuation. I was warned by a fellow CEO who had a bad experience with the same partner recently, but I ignored my better instincts and continued on. Emails and meetings follow with my expanded team. The partner promised to get back to me immediately and then backs out of the deal with a weak excuse about valuation a couple of weeks later.

It was waste of time in my opinion, and made me look bad in front of my board. I should have paid attention to the CEO who had already been down this rabbit hole. I will skip Trinity in the future. We closed our financing with a much better fund.

In my dealings with Ajay Chopra, he has shown nothing but the utmost intelligence, care for his companies and a desire to mentor those who reach out. In his learning as founder and CEO of Pinnacle Systems, he has invaluable operating experience that will help any company that signs with Trinity Ventures excel.

I would highly recommend Trinity Ventures and Ajay Chopra if you are considering Venture Capital as they are a great fit for those who want to take their company to a higher level of business.

Posted by
beowulf
on 2009-12-15

PUBLIC:

Had a great initial call with Larry Orr. He knew our space pretty well, and had thought out a number of the business issues we're facing. We're still in their process, but so far Larry has been very thoughtful, professional, and quick to get on the calendar.

We pitched Gus Tai and he got our business and model immediately. One of my co-founders remarked that Gus provided more helpful feedback than we had gotten from our seed/A VCs in over two years of board meetings.

Posted by
kickinit
on 2008-11-01

PUBLIC:

Really liked Tom and Ajay, Patricia asked good questions and seemed interested. First couple pitches went really well. But our last pitch to MR. LARRY ORR, oh man, guy was taking a siesta in the back of the room. You can tell who holds the purse strings. Quickly turned down after that.

Posted by
billsvision
on 2008-07-07

PUBLIC:

I met Alex about 2 years ago at my previous firm at a Seattle event. He invited us down to the bay area to chat about what we were doing for another company (for one of his portfolio), which we did. At the time I told him that I was also thinking about a startup and ever since he's been helping me with insight, critiques and connections. Last fall we pitched them on our 'let's see if this will fly with VC's' trek and they turned us down, within the week. Great to have all the issues out as he was very honest as to the reasoning. Could not have asked for anything more, except of course, the money...

Posted by
networker
on 2008-04-14

PUBLIC:

Gus sat on the board of the last company I was an executive at, and now that I'm at another startup he's definitely on my tier 1 list of folks to ping when we're ready to raise.

Gus has a calm zen like aura that I just love, it's a calm wisdom that I don't get from most people. The rest of the team, Jim, Ajay, Tom, etc are also all just great guys, really smart and what I love the most about trinity is that they are pragmatic in the way they think about ideas. Basically you need to have a way to make money :)

They don't have the big consumer name as most of the other VC's but check their track record for companies that went public or sold. It's pretty impressive.

I've pitched Trinity twice, and Tim McAdam, is definitely smart, engaged and helpful. He asked good, productive questions and seemed sincerely interested in our business. Fred Wang seemed totally aloof and uninterested. Perhaps he is smart, but he definitely needs to work on his meeting skills. It seemed from the start that he had an attitude that we were wasting his time. He's clearly shouldn't have even taken the meeting. It's clear that he was a consultant and has never been an entrepreneur.

Posted by
harrc
on 2008-02-15

PUBLIC:

We pitched Trinity on a Monday, had a second meeting on Wednesday, and a decision by the following Monday. We were finishing up our fundraising cycle and asked them to move quickly, which they did. While Trinity decided not to invest in this round, they were very efficient and moved quickly. Their questions and due diligence checks were thoughtful and professional.

We worked with Jim Tybur, Fred Wang, and Alex Osadzinski. I would feel very comfortable working with these guys in the future. Trinity gave us good support and feedback.

Out of the VC firms that we spoke to I believe Trinity was the most upfront. Have noted a marked difference between the "money guys" (those that work in finance and have never run, much less understand, how to build a company) and former entrepreneurs. Alex O being one of the latter (and they are statistically much rarer) is a much better character to deal with.

I'll offer my personal opinion on the sharply divergent opines presented here on Alex. He's a very direct person; if he thinks your business model is wack he'll probably say so right to your face. On the other hand some frankness in an industry of vague mumbling non-speak is refreshing and there's a (big) difference between constructive feedback and being a jerk.

After what we've learned about the VC industry I'm not sure we'll elect to go this route after the self-funding and angel options. What the last poster has referenced about the VC industry is true across the board - somewhere the VCs took the V out of it, and due diligence has become borderline, and perhaps just pure and total fear. Regardless if we were to consider this route in the near future, Trinity takes top marks in all the firms we spoke to for pure honesty in what point they would want in, what to do to make it succeed, and how quickly they would move.

I'm a little thrown off by the polarized reactions to this guy. In my experience, he's never been less than totally curteous, direct about his reservations, never cutting or condenscending. Not like some other, ahem, uncouth VC guys I've spoken to. But I haven't yet made the pitch in person. Anyone want to take a stab at why the divergent opinions"" Good to flesh this out before the meeting...

Posted by
fundable
on 2007-08-21

PUBLIC:

I pitched my early stage company to Trinity just to get on their radar for a series A in 4-6 months. I was pleasantly surprised that they gave serious thought to an immediate investment. Ultimately they decided it's too soon, but in this case I'm happy to have the "soft maybe" from Trinity. They seem sincerely interested in participating in an A round down the road, and are offering continued guidance along the way.

Posted by
sarto
on 2007-08-08

PUBLIC:

we met several times and with many partners without getting a term sheet despite a lot of verbal indications we would. on balance, i can't fault them. they could have been more decisive at the outset but not out of bounds. think they were careful and generally supportive. at the end of the day, they wanted us to show more progress with our concept-- which is reasonable. across the board, the partners were approachable and had constructive comments- Ajay, Gus and Tom in particular.

Posted by
dougklein
on 2007-10-22

PUBLIC:

In the interest of full disclosure, I had the pleasure of spending 3 months last year as an EIR with Trinity, so you can slant my comments either positively or negatively based on your view of that sort of VC involvement :)

I found the team at Trinity to be of the highest ethical standards. I have worked with some firms that have exhibited some pretty questionable behavior - I never saw anything questionable at Trinity. I strongly recommend them (and indeed, am trying to convince them to fund my current company :). Each partner had value to bring to the party, especially in terms of basic business planning and on market analysis. The team as a whole is extremely supportive of their portfolio companies, even stepping in with operational help when necessary (which is never what anyone *wants* to happen to a startup :).

They do tend to be very conservative, however, focusing mostly on Series B stage deals. You'll have the best luck if you are looking for growth funding, i.e., you are more into execution risk than market risk.

NOTE: I later added a comment to this post but it appears that comments require a bit of digging to see, so in the interest of fairness, let me just add it to the main text body also:

A friend pointed out to me that in recent past over half of Trinity's investments have actually been Series A, so my comments may be a bit mis-leading. A better way of stating what I was trying to get across is that if you're very early (more seed than traditional VC stage), Trinity, like most of the more convervative funds is less likely to participate. They're quite conservative. What I have found over the past few months as I've worked on my current company is that they are extremely helpful in terms of advice and introductions as you build yourself up to the point of presenting a solid story to them :) This is actually just further evidence of the value a good investor can bring to the table - the connections and feedback I have received from Trinity over the past few months have allowed us to get close to a point at which I may convince them to invest.

Posted by
Alyssa Rapp
on 2007-06-25

PUBLIC:

Tom Cole is a wonderfully cerebral, open-minded, and authentic Venture Capitalist. He's candid about his passion for a given space, direct about whether or not he sees your concept as a fit for Trinity, and in general, a lovely person with whom to do business. Based upon our interactions, should Bottlenotes seriously pursue venture financing, there's no question he's one of the first people to whom I'd take the deal.

Alex is a rare VC who has both played direct operational roles and is quite aware of the particular roles that VCs play and is working extremely hard to be world class at the roles VCs play. Perhaps I'm lucky, but he has always been straight forward and funny and, yes, somewhat cutting but not unreasonably so in our interactions.

I'd be very wary of posts that suggest that ANY venture capital partner is slow. All of the venture capital partners I know are smart. Tim is one of the brightest. Quick to respond, decisive and very helpful and insightful in a working relationship. You got this one dead wrong.

The new generation at Trinity (Gus, Tim, Fred, and Patricia) is very solid. Those 4 make up a very formidable engine. Bring a big market, an elegant business model, as well as a non-pyschotic personality and you'll do well here. BTW, the comment about Tim is totally off base. He's one of the hardest working people on the venture side, pre and post funding. The guy is many things, but slow isn't one of them.